Donald Trump suggested in a new interview that existing abortion laws “are set” just days after backtracking from saying that women should face “some form of punishment” if the procedure was banned and they still underwent it. It also marks the GOP front-runner’s fourth separate stated position on abortion in three days, at least before his campaign quickly established a fifth when they walked back the new statement. In an excerpt that aired Friday from an interview for this week’s Face the Nation on CBS, Trump said that, with regard to abortion, “The laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way.” Trump’s campaign was then, once again, forced to clarify the difference between what the candidate says and what he believes, insisting that Trump just “gave an accurate account of the law as it is today” and that he thinks that abortion laws must not change until he gets into the White House. Once Trump is president, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks explained, “he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn.”
Trump also gave a confusing response during the interview on whether or not he believed abortion was murder, only noting that, “I have my opinions on it, but I’d rather not comment on it,” while also adding that he didn’t disagree with those who do consider abortion murder.
Over the course of less than a week, Trump has made the punishment statement, then said that the issue was “unclear and should be put back into the states for determination,” and then said that “the woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb,” and that his position on abortion “has not changed.”
Trump also said in the Face the Nation interview that he did not agree that this has been the worst week of his campaign.
